DT 



Glass - 

Book 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



TMNSVAAL 



A Condensed 
History f m 

SOUTH 
AFRICAN 
REPUBLIC 




CHICAGO AND NEW YORK. 

<RAND, MCN ALLY &. COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS. 



ORIENTAL LIBRARY. Vol. I, No. 22. July. 1899. Entered at Chicago Post Office as second-class matter. 




CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE 
TRANSVAAL 



PRESIDENT KRUGER. 



THE TRANSVAAL 



A Condensed History 

OF * 

THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC 



ILL USTRA TED. 



Chicago and New York: 
RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS. 



L 



TWO COPIES MSGElVEa. 



Library of CeagrM* 
Office of the 

N0V271899 

Register of Copyright* 



48677 

Copyright, 1899, by Rand, McNally & Company. 



A A 



second COPY, 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I — Early History and Settlement, . 13 

II — The Great Trek, .... 23 

III — Political Changes, . . . . 32 

IV — Discovery of Gold, . ... 38 

V — Physical Features, . . . .46 

VI — Growth of the Republic, . . 55 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

President Kruger, . . • . . Frontispiece 



Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, . . . . 15 

A Zulu. Chief, . . . . . . 18 

Boers Outspanning, 21 

An Old Dutch Dwelling, 25 

A Kaffir, 27 

Tugela Falls, Tugela River, Natal, ... 29 
Market Buildings, Johannesburg, . . . .33 

Raad Zaal (Government Building), Pretoria, . 35 

Pritchard Street, Looking East, Johannesburg, . 39 

Gold Digger's Hut, . .• . . . 41 

Swazi Girl 45 

Majuba Hill, . 47 

President Steyn, Orange Free State, . . .51 

The Market Place, Johannesburg, 53 

Boers on Transvaal Frontier, Kit Inspection, . 57 

Cecil J. Rhodes, 58 

Sir W. Hely-Hutchinson, Governor, Natal, . . 59 



CONDENSED HISTORY 



OF 

THE TRANSVAAL. 



CHAPTER I. 
EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT. 

The South African Republic, also known as 
the Transvaal, owes its origin to a number of 
Dutch farmers (Boers) who, discontent with 
British rule, quitted Cape Colony in 1835 for 
Natal, but left the latter country upon its an- 
nexation to the British Crown, and settled in the 
countries now known as the Orange Free State 
and the South African Republic. 

The Cape of Good Hope was discovered by 

Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese navigator, in 

i486. Diaz named it Cape of Storms, but as 

its discovery afforded a hope of a new and easier 
13 



14 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



way to the Indies, it was re-named by King John 
the Second, receiving the name it now bears. 
The Portuguese made no effort to establish a 
station, and the first serious attempt at perma- 
nent colonization was the Dutch settlement, 
officially known as the Dutch East India Set- 
tlement, made at Table Bay, 1652. A healthful 
climate, good soil, and, above all, the promise of 
religious toleration, served to attract more im- 
migrants from Holland, Germany, and France. 
Soon the little settlement was of recognized im- 
portance, and the port at Cape Town even then 
one of the most important in the world, as it 
was practically the only port where supplies 
could be secured by vessels making the long trip 
to the East Indies. As immigration increased, 
and the comparatively small area of fertile land 
having been taken up, the more daring settlers 
began the keeping of cattle upon the less fertile 
lands to the north, and here laid the foundations 
of that lonely, half-nomadic life which devel- 
oped in its followers courage, self-reliance, love 
of independence and of solitude, the most char- 
acteristic traits of the true South Afrikander of 



16 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



to-day. In defending their families and their 
cattle from the stealthy and dangerous attacks 
of the Bushmen, and in the pursuit of wild game, 
they became excellent marksmen and intrepid 
and daring fighters. 

The government of the Colony administered 
by the East India Company with a view to its 
own commercial interests, and with little, if any, 
regard for the interests of the community, was 
unpopular with the colonists. As discontent 
grew, an ever-increasing number of the people 
sought the outlying districts, penetrated far into 
the wilderness of the interior, and finally com- 
ing to feel, through the remoteness and freedom 
of their isolated lives, that they owed no alle- 
giance to the laws of the Colony, in 1795 they 
attempted to form an independent government. 
The English aided the Dutch in suppressing 
the revolt and ruled the country until 1802, when 
it was restored to Holland. The former had 
not cared to occupy the Cape in 1620, but since 
the middle of the 18th century had recognized 
the importance of the station, and in 1806, dur- 
ing the Napoleonic wars, they again took pos- 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



17 



session of the country, which was formally ceded 
to them by the Dutch in 1814. At this time 
the inhabitants numbered about 27,000, chiefly 
Dutch, with a smaller number of German or 
of French descent. In 1658 negroes, as slaves, 
had been introduced from West Africa, and the 
black slaves now numbered about 30,000, and 
there were also some 17,000 of the aboriginal 
Hottentots. 

The colonists, in general, viewed the occupa- 
tion of the country by the English with approval, 
hoped for an improvement in their conditions, 
and for a time found no cause of com- 
plaint against the administration. But before 
the formal cession of the country took place, 
slavery and the color question, which have ever 
• since been the indirect causes of much of the 
trouble arising in South Africa, had brought the 
colonists into conflict with the authorities. 
Prosecution for alleged ill treatment of servants 
became frequent, and, though the serious charges 
were disproven, the irritation aroused among the 
settlers was extreme. When in 1815 a farmer, 
who had resisted arrest on such a charge, was 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



1!) 



shot and almost instantly killed, and five of his 
friends arrested and condemned for rising in 
his behalf were hanged, the resentment awak- 
ened by the harshness and injustice of the pun- 
ishment was widespread and bitter. The enmity 
thus engendered is perpetuated to-day through- 
out the Transvaal by the commemoration of 
March 6th, the day of the uprising, as a na- 
tional holiday, known as Slagter's Nek Day 
(Butcher's Ridge Day). During 1820 about 
5,000 emigrants from England and Scotland en- 
tered the country, and between 1825 and 1828 
fresh cause was given for discontent when the 
administration practically abolished the old sys- 
tem of local government and decreed that there- 
after the English language instead of the Dutch 
should be employed in all official documents and 
in all legal proceedings — a distinct advantage to 
the newcomers, but a serious hardship to the 
majority of the 42,000 inhabitants, for only about 
one-eighth of the people understood English, 
and without the towns Dutch was the universal 
language. 



•20 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



Following close upon the preceding were the 
troubles regarding the Kaffirs. The latter, after 
having repeatedly devastated farms, killing many 
of the cattle farmers and driving oft their cat- 
tle, and being finally subdued by the settlers 
and compelled to retire beyond the confines of 
the settlements, were now permitted, by decree 
of the home government, to return to their for- 
mer stations, a constant menace and danger to 
the border farmers. However, all other griev- 
ances were lost sight of when, in 1833, the 
authorities passed an emancipation act, whereby 
slavery was to cease December 1, 1834 — an act 
in itself justifiable, but so badly and dishonestly 
conducted that many of the owners were reduced 
to absolute penury. In the agricultural districts 
work was practically suspended for want of 
laborers, and great distress prevailed throughout 
the country. There had never been any attempt 
by the colonists to defend the system, and about 
1830 they had agreed to emancipate their slaves, 
and had received from the British government 
promises of ample compensation. The value of the 
slaves — 39,000 in number — excluding aged or 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



21 



infirm, was over $15,000,000, but when the gov- 
ernment emancipated them the amount of com- 
pensation was fixed at less than $6,000,000. 
Many of the slaves were mortgaged, every bond 




BOERS OUTSPANNING. 



containing a clause covering all other property, 
and when the insufficiency of the amount be- 
came known a demand was made for immedi- 
ate redemption of these bonds. But the confis- 



22 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



cation of $10,000,000 of property was found to 
be only a part of the loss, as the claims were 
payable, after certain charges were deducted, in 
stock, and only in London, and as most of the 
colonists were forced to sell their claims, in the 
end they often received even less than one-fifth 
or one-sixth the value of their property. Loss 
and suffering intensified the discontent already 
existing among a people who had borne one 
injustice after another from alien rulers, and 
many resolved to quit the country and to go far 
out into the northern wilderness beyond the lands 
subject to the English. And thus in 1835 began 
the Great Trek, as it is known to the Boers, 
or, as we would say, the great emigration — Trek 
literally meaning an organized migration of set- 
tlers to another part of the country. Within two 
years 6,000 to 7,000 persons left the colony. 
The colonial governor viewed with concern the 
departure of so many useful subjects, but was 
powerless to prevent it. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE GREAT TREK. 

The country through which the emigrants 
journeyed was but little known, and the vast 
wilderness to the north and east for which they 
were bound, was almost entirely unexplored and 
full of perils, the home of savage beasts and 
more savage men, from which only their skillful 
marksmanship saved them in the many strug- 
gles and encounters which arose. Among the 
few now living who shared the dangers and hard- 
ships incident to the Great Trek is President 
Kruger, then a boy of ten. After great loss and 
suffering, a large number succeeded in reaching 
the country now known as Natal, and having 
finally subdued the savage Zulus, established the 
Republic of Natal, and in 1840 founded Pieter- 
maritzburg. At the port of Natal were a few 
Englishmen who had been permitted to remain 

there by the despotic Zulus and carry on trade 
23 



24 THE TRANSVAAL. 

with the natives. These having repeatedly failed 
in their petitions to the English government to 
have the country declared a British possession, 
gladly welcomed the emigrant farmers. The 
Boers had at great loss of life freed the country 
from the Zulus and made it valuable. The Eng- 
lish troops stationed at Port Natal in 1838 had 
been withdrawn, and as it was now the avowed 
policy of England to restrict advance of British 
settlement, having over and over again officially 
announced that she would not enlarge her pos- 
sessions in South Africa, the Boer settlers be- 
lieved themselves the rightful owners of the 
country. The English, however, viewed the at- 
tempt to establish a new white state on the coast 
with disfavor, and fearing that the port of Natal 
might in time affect trade with the interior, em- 
braced an early opportunity to send troops 
against the Boers and assert their authority over 
Natal and to the country behind as far as the 
Drakenberg Mountains. After a vigorous resist- 
ance the Boers were overpowered and the coun- 
try in the hands of the English, and in 1843 Natal 
was formally declared a British colony. The 



26 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



Boers having entered an ineffectual protest 
against equal civil rights for black and white, 
as laid down by the British government, dur- 
ing the next five years all but a very small num- 
ber left the country, re-crossed the mountains 
and joined the emigrants who had remained on 
the interior plateau. Most of them settled in 
the territory between the Vaal River and the 
Magalies Mountains. The earlier settlers of 
that region had removed away to the northeast, 
hoping to Open up communication with the outer 
world through Delagoa Bay, held by the Por- 
tuguese ; part of their number founded the vil- 
lage of Lydenburg, others settled in Zoutpans- 
burg. 

The Dutch emigrants from the Cape were 
now settled over a wide extent of territory, ex- 
tending from just south of the Orange River, 
the recognized limit of the Cape Colony, north 
to the Limpopo River, 700 miles ; and from the 
Drakenberg westward, 300 miles, with no bar- 
rier to the plain that stretched beyond to the 
Atlantic. England, however, still claimed the 
trekkers as subjects, viewed with increasing dis- 



THE TRANSVAAL. 27 

favor their continual withdrawal from British 
rule, and, unwilling to incur the expense of an- 




A KAFFIR. 



nexing so large a territory, about 1843 con ~ 
ceived the idea of isolating the emigrants from 



28 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



the Cape by erecting as a barrier along the 
border of the Colony a line of strong native 
states. By this barrier they hoped to cut the 
emigrants off from all commercial communica- 
tion with the Cape, prevent others from aban- 
doning the Colony to join them, and, in the 
end, leave the Boers no alternative but to quit 
the interior and return to their old homes. The 
plan was unsuccessful, and when the old troubles 
between the natives and the settlers to the north 
of the Orange River broke out anew, British 
troops under a military resident were sent to 
occupy Bloemfontein, and the entire country 
between the Orange and Vaal rivers was for- 
mally declared British, to be known as the 
Orange River Sovereignty. Some of the more 
independent spirits, aided by the settlers beyond 
the Vaal, attempted to resist the occupation, but 
were defeated and British authority over the 
country was successfully established in 1848. 

No attempt was made to interfere with the 
Boers beyond the Vaal, who were practically 
independent internally, though the governments 
they set up were not recognized ; and it was prob- 



30 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



ably not sympathy for their independent spirit 
but rather because colonial wars and the gov- 
ernment of thinly settled and inhospitable dis- 
tricts were expensive, that the British did not 
seek to pursue and govern them. During this 
period economy was the watchword in England, 
and the success of the American revolution hav- 
ing led many English to believe that other colo- 
nies reaching a like degree of prosperity and 
population would declare for and receive inde- 
pendence, the desire was to check colonial ex- 
pansion. The imperial commissioners had re- 
peatedly announced their determination not to 
add any more ground in South Africa to the 
queen's dominions, and finally, the government 
decided to abandon the interior to the restless 
Boers and natives, and at a convention held at 
Sand River, 1852, the independence of the Trans- 
vaal emigrants and of the South African Re- 
public were recognized. The emigrants within 
the Orange River Sovereignty remained under 
British rule until the resident troops were again 
involved in serious troubles with the natives, 
when the British government, wearied with the 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



31 



apparently unending hostilities, decided to aban- 
don the country altogether. Many of the later 
settlers were English and earnestly desired to 
remain British subjects. They protested vigor- 
ously against the abandonment of the country, 
especially before the savages were subdued, even 
sending delegates to England asking for a recon- 
sideration of the withdrawal. However, to no 
purpose ; the government was determined upon 
its course, but did everything possible to make 
independence acceptable to a great number of 
attached subjects, and to thus rid itself of a large 
territory. Parliament voted a sum of money as 
part compensation for losses, and at a conven- 
tion held at Bloemfontein, February 23, 1854, 
the British government "guaranteed the future 
independence and government" of the country, 
thereafter to be known as the Orange Free State. 
Thus after eight years of occupation the coun- 
try was abandoned by the English, chiefly be- 
cause of difficulties continually arising with an- 
tagonistic native powers, which they had been 
instrumental in building up in their endeavors to 
restrain the emigration of the Boers. 



CHAPTER III. 



POLITICAL CHANGES. 

The attempt to unite the various settlements 
north of the Vaal under one government was 
not successful until 1857, an d it was not until 
1864, under the presidency of Mr. Pretorius, 
with Mr. S. J. Paul Kruger as commandant- 
general or military head, that strife ceased among 
the various factions in the Republic. Then much 
dissension, even in religious matters, remained to 
disturb the peace, while many uprisings among 
the natives sorely taxed the slender resources of 
the new government. In 1869 a treaty was com- 
pleted with the Portuguese whereby the colonists 
secured free transit of all goods through Lorenzo 
Marquez, the Portuguese port on Delagoa Bay, 
and in order to avoid the import duties levied by 
the British Colony of Natal, they made great 
effort to secure direct access, by road and rail, 

to Delagoa Bay. The way, however, lay through 
32 



34 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



country occupied by the savage Bantus, who, 
protected by the whites, had now become a for- 
midable power, and who immediately declared 
hostilities and involved the Boers in desultory 
warfare. 

The attention of Great Britain having been 
called to the port of Lorenzo Marquez — the best 
on the shores of Delagoa Bay — by the Portu- 
guese treaty, and the probabilities that consid- 
erable trade might develop between the Portu- 
guese coast and the interior under the treaty, 
that country at once claimed the port under a 
cession obtained from a native chief by a cap- 
tain of the British navy in 1822. The Portu- 
guese government refused to acknowledge this 
claim, and in 1872 it was referred to the arbi- 
tration of Marshal MacMahon, then president of 
the French Republic, who decided in favor of 
Portugal. A provision in the agreement of arbi- 
tration, however, not only prevents the South 
African Republic but also any European power 
other than that of England from acquiring, by 
purchase, this important commercial and stra- 
tegic point. 



36 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



In the meantime the struggles between the 
Boers and natives continuing unabated, great 
excitement resulted among the savage tribes 
along the frontier between KafTraria and Cape 
Colony, seriously menacing the welfare of the 
colonists. The Republic was struggling under 
heavy war taxes, its people were divided in opin- 
ion, and civil war seemed imminent, when Great 
Britain interfered, aided the Boers to subdue 
the natives, and finally, April, 1877, annexed 
the country. The president retired under pro- 
test, but the mass of the Boer people offering no 
resistance a considerable military force entered 
the territory, which was renamed the Transvaal, 
and the new government was established. But 
the farmers, dissatisfied with the loss of their in- 
dependence, and the failure of the British gov- 
ernment to keep its promises, twice sent dele- 
gations to England — of which Paul Kruger was 
each time a member — to protest against annex- 
ation, and finally, in 1880, the growing discon- 
tent culminated in an uprising in which the Eng- 
lish suffered numerous disasters at the hands of 
the Boers. 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



37 



After the battle of Majuba Hill, February, 
1881, where the English were completely routed, 
hostilities were suspended, and in a short time 
peace was established. At a convention held at 
Pretoria in August, self-government was restored 
to the Boers under the suzerainty of Great Bri- 
tain ; but, in 1884, by the terms of a new con- 
vention, the Transvaal, or the South African 
Republic, as it had been re-named, became ab- 
solutely independent in everything relating to 
internal affairs. 

The British resident was replaced by a diplo- 
matic agent, but England retained the right to 
veto treaties the government might make with 
foreign countries. No mention was made to the 
suzerainty of "Her Majesty" and the Boers have 
ever since maintained that this omission was 
equivalent to a renunciation, a contention that 
the English by no means grant. In 1890 small 
portions of Swaziland and Amatongaland were 
ceded to the Republic, and in 1895 a protec- 
torate was established over Swaziland. 



CHAPTER IV. 



DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

In 1884, f° ur years after the re-establishment 
of the government, rich gold fields were discov- 
ered in the district of Lydenburg, and a little 
later, March, 1885, still more extensive fields 
were discovered on Witwatersrand (Whitewat- 
ersridge) between the Vaal River and Magaiies 
Mountains. While gold had been long worked 
within the Transvaal, "heretofore the production 
had not been important enough to attract the 
outer world. Many people now migrated to the 
eastern fields from the South African countries, 
and later from Europe, and an important min- 
ing center grew up at Barberton. But when 
the greater importance of the Witwatersrand, or, 
as it is popularly designated, the Rand, became 
known, the former lost the most of its inhabi- 
tants. The new fields attracted the attention of 

people from all parts of the world ; the city of 
38 



40 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



Johannesburg arose as if by magic, and in a 
short time many thousands had entered the coun- 
try and secured mining claims from the Boers. 

According to an eminent English authority, 
by 1895 the total number of recent immigrants, 
most of whom were adult males, was far greater 
than the entire Boer population, including wom- 
en and children. This vast army of people 
that poured into the country attracted by the 
gold were chiefly English, most of them Brit- 
ish subjects, and between their interests and 
those of the farmers who compose the Boer Re- 
public there was a great difference. The latter 
regard the country as theirs, secured through 
untold suffering, privation, and loss of life, and 
are determined not to surrender their right of 
governing it to strangers without a struggle. 
Of the foreigners — Uitlanders — within the coun- 
try, some are Americans, many are English, and 
the Boers contend that few, if any, of these 
would admit that it was their intention to re- 
nounce citizenship in their own countries and 
become naturalized subjects of the South African 
Republic. 



42 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



They are all there in the hope of securing 
riches, and that hope realized, their immediate 
desire is to quit the country. One observer writ- 
ing on the subject has said, that "the population 
of South Africa may be divided into three great 
classes of individuals : First, those who are only 
waiting for the time when they will be able to 
leave the country-M:he Uitlanders ; second, those 
who hope that that time may speedily come — 
the native-born whites ; and third, those who 
have no hope at all — the negroes." Another 
writer, discussing the various phases of the con- 
troversy which has since culminated in open hos- 
tilities between the Boer government and the 
British, sums up the situation in the statement 
that "it has become growingly inconvenient for 
various interests, chiefly commercial and specu- 
lative, to have the narrow and conservative Boer 
government in control of a country that con- 
tains the richest gold mines in the world." 

Previous to 1877 the franchise was probably 
the lowest in the world, but since the election 
of Mr. Kruger to the presidency successive laws 
have been passed restricting the electoral fran- 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



43 



chise, thus excluding" the newcomers, and keep- 
ing the native Boer element in majority. Dis- 
satisfaction with the government spread among 
the outlanders, who brought forward many 
grievances. 

Taxation was high and so arranged as to bear 
much more heavily upon the mining than upon 
the farming industry ; the revenues of the coun- 
try had grown from $465,000 to $20,500,000, 
chiefly through the newcomers' industry, who 
had no voice in their disposition, and repeated 
charges of scandal and corruption in the dis- 
bursement of these funds were made against 
the Boers. 

Another cause of discontent was the discour- 
agement of English in the schools. This, how- 
ever, could not have worked great hardship to 
a body of immigrants who were chiefly adults, 
but the chief grievance, and the one out of 
which grew the Jameson raid and the present 
war with England, was the contention of the 
outlanders to a right to representation in the 
Raad. It has been justly said that this claim 
can hardly be founded on the doctrine or prac- 



44 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



tice of other states. Wherever representation 
exists it is as a consequence of citizenship, and, 
while some states show a tendency to favor the 
naturalization of aliens, others oppose it, and in 
England the law provides that the home secre- 
tary may ultimately use his own discretion. 

Since the successful confederation of the Cana- 
dian states, in 1867, certain English statesmen 
have advocated a similar confederation of all 
the countries and colonies of South Africa, and 
a desire to see this accomplished is believed tc 
have been the motive which actuated Cecil 
Rhodes and others at the time of the Uitlander 
movement of 1895-96. 



SWAZI GIRL. 



CHAPTER V. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 

Viewed by the American standard, none but 
an oppressed people situated like the Boers 
would ever have retained the idea of settling 
countries so inhospitable, unattractive, and un- 
productive as the South African Republics. The 
surface of the country offers little to attract the 
settler, and it is only within recent years that 
the vast treasures beneath it were discovered. 

The country is mainly a plateau, from 3,000 to 
upward of 4,000 feet in altitude, studded with 
isolated mountains and longer or shorter moun- 
tain ranges running in various directions. It is 
also perfectly bare except for occasional forests 
in the more sheltered parts and the lower val- 
leys, but only in the latter has the timber any 
economic value ; elsewhere the trees are mostly 
small thorny mimosas, few fit even for fuel. The 

principal rivers are the Vaal and the Limpopo ; 
46 



48 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



the country has no great inland lakes, seas, or 
rivers. The rivers of the interior have but lit- 
tle water in winter, but in summer, the wet sea- 
son, these unimportant streams become roaring 
torrents. There is but little variety in the land- 
scape. Much of the country is a vast barren 
solitude, wholly lacking the rugged beauty of 
parts of Natal and other countries of South 
Africa. The streams of Natal, unlike those of 
the Transvaal, abound in magnificent waterfalls 
which are beautiful at all seasons. The climate 
of the country, as a whole, is excellent, varying 
from temperate through sem. -tropic to tropic as 
we advance from south to north. In the north- 
ern region, called the Bosch Veld, summer is 
warmer and winter colder than in the region 
between the Vaal River and the Magaliesberg, 
known as the High Veld. Winter in the Trans- 
vaal is the dry season. 

The Republic has an area of 119,139 square 
miles, of which only about 50,000 acres are un- 
der cultivation. The farms number 12,245, and 
of these 3,636 belong to the government, 1,612 
to outside owners and companies, and the rest 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



49 



to resident owners and companies. The agri- 
cultural products of the country are not suffi- 
cient for the wants of the people, and it is 
claimed that if it were not for the mines there 
would not be one white man to a square mile 
over the whole country. While, as a whole, 
the Transvaal is an arid and barren country 
agriculturally, the Boers are a pastoral and not 
an agricultural people ; and during a large part 
of the year the herbage of the plains affords 
good pasturage for their flocks. The State Al- 
manack for 1898 gives the white population as 
345,397 — males 137,947, females 107,450; na- 
tives, 748,759; total population, 1,094,156. 

The wealth of the Transvaal lies in its min- 
erals and in this respect the country is, with- 
out exception, the richest of all the settled states 
of South Africa. Of the numerous minerals 
known to exist within the country gold is by 
far the most important, the production of the 
South African Republic placing it among the 
leading gold-producing countries of the world. 
The oldest gold fields are in Lydenberg, where 
gold has been mined since 1869; but the most 



50 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



important and productive fields are those of 
Witwatersrand, located on a ridge thirty miles 
due south of Pretoria. The ridge, simply desig- 
nated as the Rand, borders the districts of Pre- 
toria and Heidelberg and extends west into 
Potchefstroom. Gold was discovered on the 
Rand in 1885. Mining operations began before 
the close of the year, and in July, 1886, a por- 
tion of the region was proclaimed a public gold 
field. To-day the Rand gold mining district 
is the most productive in the world, the yield 
of gold having grown, year by year, with ex- 
traordinary rapidity. More than eleven-twelfths 
of the gold mined in the country is now pro- 
duced on the Witwatersrand. Of the minor gold 
fields the most productive at present are the 
De Kaep fields, in the eastern part of the coun- 
try, in the Lydenberg district, which have been 
worked since 1882; output of the fields in 1897 
50,942 ounces. The total value of the Transvaal 
gold production, from 1884 to and including 
1897, has been $269,000,000. The output for 
1897 was 3,289,720 ounces — 3,034,678 ounces 
from the Rand — valued at $57,300,000. 



51 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



Until the discovery of the diamond and gold 
mines South Africa was practically an un- 
known country in the commercial world. In 




PRESIDENT STEYN, ORANGE FREE STATE. 



52 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



1880 the total estimated value of the exports 
from the South African Republic was given as 
between $2,000,000 and $2,500,000, and of the 
imports, $5,000,000. In 1897 the value of 
imports on which dues were charged had in- 
creased to $67,800,000, while the total imports 
were estimated at $107,575,000. The exports 
are chiefly gold, wool, cattle, hides, grain, ostrich 
feathers, and ivory. In the official reports, 
among imports, clothing, machinery, railway 
material, iron wire, plates, etc., are the leading 
items. While the commercial interests of the 
United States in South Africa are of recent 
growth, yet that country has outdistanced com- 
petitors who have been long interested in the 
field, and now occupies second place among the 
nations that have trade relations with South 
Africa. So rapid has been the increase, the 
value of the exports has several times more than 
doubled in a single year. The superiority of 
certain American manufactured products, espe- 
cially mining machinery, has been largely in- 
strumental in securing these results. The value 
(official) of the exports from the United States 



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54 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



to South Africa, in 1895, was $5,000,000, by 
1897 they equaled $16,000,000, and in 1898 the 
value was estimated to be $20,000,000. Since 
the official reports give only direct shipments, 
the above figures by no means represent the en- 
tire exports, as a large percentage of the Ameri- 
can goods are sent to South Africa through 
London firms and do not appear in those reports. 
Besides American mining machinery, which is 
found wholly or in part in every mine on the 
Rand, as well as in the Kimberley diamond 
mines, steel rails, electrical appliances, agricul- 
tural machinery, and other manufactured prod- 
ucts, as well as cattle, sheep, coal, petroleum, 
and lumber — from Puget Sound — have been suc- 
cessfully introduced. Americans have been 
prominently engaged in many of the most im- 
portant enterprises that have been successfully 
established. Every important business in the 
mining district has its American representatives, 
while among those engaged in the missionary 
work none have been more successful than the 
American. 



CHAPTER VI. 



GROWTH OF THE REPUBLIC. 

As the government of the Republic was ad- 
verse to railways, until recently wagons were 
the only means of transportation, but the rapid 
development of the mines demanded a less primi- 
tive means of communication, the authorities 
were forced to yield, and various railways now 
connect the country with the Orange Free State, 
Cape Colony, Natal, and Portuguese East Africa. 
The Republic is also in telegraphic communica- 
tion with all the surrounding states and colonies. 

Johannesburg, the largest and most important 
town in the Republic, and also in South Africa, 
was founded in 1886. It is situated on a high, 
barren, and desolate plateau at a height of 5,600 
feet above sea level. The city is the commer- 
cial center of the Rand mining district, which 
has nearly all the industry and wealth, and a 

large part of the white population of the Repub- 
55 

LtfC 



56 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



lie. The population within a radius of three 
miles, according to the census of 1896 (prob- 
ably imperfect) was 102,078 — 79,315 males and 
22,76$ females. Of this number 50,907 were 
whites, 952 Malays, 4,801 coolies and Chinese, 
42,533 Kaffirs, and 2,879 °f mixed race. While 
the population — very mixed — includes Germans, 
Italians, French, and some East Indians, it is 
practically English-speaking, as next in number 
to the Colonial English, and immigrants from 
Great Britain, are the Australians and Ameri- 
cans. With the exception of government offi- 
cials, very few Boers or Hollanders reside in 
Johannesburg, and the traveler entering the city 
finds his general surroundings more English 
than Dutch, while in many respects the city 
itself resembles the western mining towns of 
the United States. The improvement of the city 
has been rapid, and many handsome streets with 
tall brick buildings are now found throughout 
the business district, while in the suburban quar- 
ter to the northeast, where the wealthier resi- 
dents have made their homes, are beautiful villas 
surrounded by. fine groves and gardens. 



THE TRANSVAAL. 57 

Pretoria, picturesquely situated on the slope 
of a well-watered and fertile valley south of the 
Magaliesberg, was founded in 1855, and has been 
the capital since 1863. It lies about thirty miles 




BOERS ON TRANSVAAL FRONTIER, KIT INSPECTION. 



northeast of Johannesburg, and, compared with 
the energetic and bustling city on the Rand, is 
a rather sleepy little town with a white popu- 
lation of about 12,000. The town has practically 
no industries and but little trade, though of late 



58 THE TRANSVAAL. 

the prosperity of the place has been materially 
increased by the development of the rich gold 




CECIL J. RHODES. 

fields of the Witwatersrand, near by, and by 
the opening of railway connection with Cape 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



59 



Town, Delagoa Bav, and Pietermaritzburg and 
Durban, Natal. The only really noteworthy 
building is the one which contains the govern- 




SIR W. HELY-HUTCHINSON, GOVERNOR NATAL. 



ment offices and chambers of the legislature, 
erected at a cost, it is said, of $1,000,000. 

Swaziland, a small but rich country adjoining 
the Transvaal on the east, is now under the pro- 



60 



THE TRANSVAAL. 



tection and administration of the Republic. The 
country is a tableland, healthy and well watered, 
with an area of 8,500 square miles and a popu- 
lation estimated at 40,000 to 60,000 natives and 
1,000 whites. During the winter this number 
is largely increased by trekkers from the Repub- 
lic. The district has long been known to be 
rich in minerals. The most celebrated mines are 
the Piggs Peak and Forbes Reef gold mines, 
but valuable tin mines and extensive coal de- 
posits are being developed rapidly. The natives 
are a warlike Kaffir race, speaking a dialect of 
Zulu, with habits and customs for the most part 
identical with those of Zululand. 



